Heat shrink tubing may be utilized for many purposes, including wire and cable identification, insulation, or both. For example, short lengths (or sleeves) of heat shrink tubing may be attached to a tubing holder. The tubing holder may be fed to a printer to print information, such as wire identification information, on the heat shrink tubing. The tubing sleeves may be manually removed by an operator from between the spines of the tubing holder. For example, the tubing sleeves may be separated by hand or manually cut using a scissor or a knife. Each tubing sleeve may be manually positioned on a corresponding wire and heat may be applied to the tubing sleeve to shrink the tubing sleeve in place on the wire.
The manual separation of the tubing sleeves may use hand strength, finger strength, dexterity, and patience. In some applications, such as labeling a complex wiring harness, the manual separation process may be repeated tens or hundreds of times.